Caller Reports Sighting Missing Man

YORK — A caller to the York County Sheriff's Department Friday reported seeing a man who fits the description of a missing 58-year-old Grafton man the night of his disappearance.

The caller said he saw a white man and two black men standing beside a Mercedes Benz pulled off of Witch Duck Road in Virginia Beach between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Capt. Ron Montgomery said.

The car apparently had left the Virginia Beach Expressway exit onto Witch Duck Road and was heading eastbound.

"It appears to be good information," Montgomery said. "It means that right now it appears that for at least a period of time he and the vehicle were in Virginia Beach that night."

Investigators have had little to go by in searching for James William Johnson, who did not return home after driving his four-door 1989 Mercedes Benz 300 SE to meet a potential buyer for the car at the Omni Hotel in midtown Newport News.

Johnson's wife, Joyce, started worrying about him when he had not returned home in time for his evening medical treatment for a removed lung.

The couple had met the man the night before to show him the car at the same location. Mrs. Johnson said the man told her his name was J.C. Jiles and that the insurance company he worked for in Atlanta was transferring him to Newport News.

Montgomery had not heard back from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Atlanta about any leads they might have found. Investigators in Atlanta were checking telephone listings for all phonetic spellings of the name.

Local investigators started concentrating their efforts on searching for more clues in the Virginia Beach area since hearing the lead, Montgomery said. They are still hopeful that other people will have spotted the car and the men and will call in with information.

The car is a four-door 1989 smoke-silver Mercedes Benz 300 SE with red pinstripes and Virginia license tag number FAV-925.

Mrs. Johnson described the man who called himself Jiles as a light-skinned black man in his late 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and of medium build.

She spent Friday afternoon with another police artist explaining the description of Jiles in more detail because she was not satisfied with the first composite of Jiles.

The Johnsons' three children and four grandchildren waited for news at the brick home he built in 1964.

"It makes me feel better that we have a lead," said his stepdaughter Carol Shell.